310 PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



can only say that the secularization became marked in the 

 later stages of Grecian life. Though before the time of 

 Zeuxis various painters had occupied themselves with such 

 semi-secular subjects as battles and with other subjects com 

 pletely secular, yet, generally executed as these were for the 

 ancillary parts of temples, and being tinctured by that senti 

 ment implied in the representation of great deeds achieved 

 by ancestors, they still preserved traces of religious origin. 

 This is, indeed, implied by the remark which Mr. Poynter 

 quotes from Lucian, that Zeuxis cared not &quot; to repeat the 

 representations of gods, heroes, and battles, which were al 

 ready hackneyed and familiar. &quot; 



718. The first stages in the history of painting, and of 

 those who practised it, after the rise of Christianity, are con 

 fused by the influences of the pagan art at that time exist 

 ing. It was only after this earliest Italian art, religious like 

 other early art in nearly all its subjects, had been practically 

 extinguished by barbarian invaders, that characteristic 

 Christian art was initiated by introduction of the methods 

 and usages which had been preserved and developed in Con 

 stantinople ; and the art thus recommenced, entirely devoted 

 to sacred purposes, was entirely priestly in its executants. 

 &quot;From the monasteries of Constantinople, Thessalonica, and 

 Mount Athos,&quot; says Mr. Poynter, &quot; Greek artists and teach 

 ers passed into all the provinces of Southern Europe; &quot; and 

 thereafter, for a long period, the formal Byzantine style 

 prevailed everywhere. 



Of the scanty facts illustrating the subsequent relations 

 between priest and painter in early Christian Europe, one 

 is furnished by the ninth century. 



Bogoris, the first Christian king of the Bulgarians, solicited the 

 emperor Michael &quot; for the services of a painter competent to decorate 

 his palace,&quot; and the &quot; emperor despatched [the monk] Methodius to 

 the Bulgarian Court.&quot; 



The continuance of this connexion is shown by the follow 

 ing passage from Eastlake s History: 



